Lord of the Flies

First published in 1954, LORD OF THE FLIES has been translated into every major language: in English alone, it has sold over 25 million copies. Among the most influential books of the 20th century, it is both a gripping thriller and a parable about the thin crust of civilization beneath which, dark and primivite, the human soul ever seeks means to burst through. . . . This 2008 Folio Society edition includes a preface by award-winning novelist, Ian McEwan, and superb illustrations by Sam Weber that capture the novel's never to be forgotton, iconically imaged events which Golding packs with narrative and psychological resonance--the conch shell that bestows power, the dead would-be rescuer and parachutist who is tremulously and silently impaled on tree branches, the butchered pig's head that speaks chillingly in Simon's mind until, in fright and hallucination, he blacks out and drops to the ground. . . . A great novel superbly book-crafted by London's Folio Society.